On May 31st, 2012 the Maxwell family boarded a plane and moved to Swaziland to live at Project Canaan. I hope to update my blog on Saturday mornings and share, as honestly as I can, the highs and lows of our life in Africa. We are living on a farm in a remote part of this tiny Kingdom and are serving the community as well as the orphans and vulnerable children of the nation. The 365 day count down started on June 1st, 2011, but the real journey begins now. Thanks for joining us.

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Saturday, December 31, 2016

I have mentioned before that 2016 was a very difficult year
for us, but I know that it was a hard year for people all over the world, and
maybe even for you.

It's New Years Eve and may I suggest that the time of reflection
(lamenting, mourning, whining, complaining) of 2016 is over.It is time to look forward to future –
2017.

The world seems to be falling apart around us; politics have
the global community on edge, parenting is harder than ever and the crisis of
starvation, orphans, poverty and disease don’t seem to be getting any better.

So what do we do now? I don’t really have an answer for
people who are not followers of Jesus, but for those of you who are, the only
answer is to be intentional about asking the Lord for direction in your life,
every day.Now more than ever we
need to be seeking His will and be obedient. If you are supposed to move, then move. If you are supposed to give, then give. If you are supposed to pray, then pray. If you are supposed to volunteer, then volunteer. Stop waffling and start doing. Today is the day.

Proverbs 3:5-7 says, “Trust
God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to
figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s
voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you
on track. Don’t assume that you know it all.”

I hope you will spend more time watching the 20-second video that is attached than you will spend reading this short blog, and that you will be encouraged
as you watch.These children are
alive and well because many people like you either moved or volunteered or gave
or prayed for them. Thank you to
each and every one of you for all have you have done to make a difference in
the world.

Saturday, December 24, 2016

Spencer (22) and Chloe (20) home for the holiday. Photo credits: Jane Balasz

2016 has been a very challenging year on many levels.Devastating drought has made extreme
poverty even worse. Death by HIV/AIDS,
TB, house fires and fluke accidents have caused us to attend too many
funerals.Pain and suffering have
become the parents of hopelessness - a hopelessness that I have never seen before.Death seems to be hiding in every bush and standing on every
street corner, waiting without mercy to strike.

But there is hope.Yesterday we received two babies, a 1-month-old and a 4-month-old andlast Friday we also received two babies, a 7-month old and a 2-month old.
Each baby
with a sadder story than the other. One arrived on HIV medication, three are severely malnourished, one has epileptic
seizures that started on the ride home, and one has STI’s on her face, but all
have been chosen by God to live with us.We now have 146 children (under the age of 6-years) who call Project
Canaan home.

61 children from Emseni Campus and 37 toddlers = a difficult photo with 98 children!

As I wrote that last paragraph my chest tightened a
bit.This is hard.We have 13 babies under the age of
6-months living at Kuthula Place, all struggling to “catch up” in weight and
health. Some literally fighting for their lives. There are 35 children at the El Roi
baby home, 37 children at the toddler home and 61 children up at the Emseni Campus.It is overwhelming, at the least.

35 children who are 6-18 months old live at the El Roi Baby home.

But God is good, all the time, and we give thanks for the
opportunity to serve HIM through these small children.

Today there are 13 babies at Kuthula place ages 1-6 months.

As the year comes to an end I am writing to ask you to
consider making a Year End gift to Heart for Africa.We have donors who will match up to $120,000 and we are
really going to need these funds to care for 146+ babies in 2017.Also, we would like to give you an audio copy of my first book "It's Not Okay With Me" for any year end donation, large or small. The book shares our family's journey to Africa.

Will you help us with your most
generous gift today?Thank you
from the bottom of my heart for allowing Him to work through you.

Saturday, December 17, 2016

Spencer and Chloe often tease us that our Christmas
tradition is to do something different ever Christmas.Of course I am quick to defend our age
old traditions ofhaving Chinese
food on Christmas eve, apple turnovers on Christmas morning, turkey with Diane
Maxwell’s potatoes Romanoff for dinner and of course the same homemade
Christmas cookies ever year.

I will admit that when we moved to the US we were no longer
able to buy Pillsbury turnovers, so that tradition was forced to change into
Ian’s (now famous) Belgian waffles with fresh strawberries and whip cream.There is no way that the kids could
complain about that upgrade in tradition, right?

Having Chinese food on Christmas Eve was a tradition dating
back to my childhood.It all
started because there was only one restaurant where I grew up in Northern
Ontario and it was a Chinese food restaurant called “The Shamrock”.My mom wanted a quick easy meal at
after the pharmacy closed on Christmas Eve before we made the 400-mile drive to
my cousins’ house in Southern Ontario. The Chinese food in Swaziland is really
not great, so last year our kids suggested that we change the tradition to
include their favorite steak dinner, complete with baked potato and Greek salad,
rather than Chinese food.That was
an easy sell for Ian and me.

While the traditions of turkey, potatoes and Christmas
cookies have not changed, we have jointly agreed to include making pancakes,
bacon and fruit salad for all our big kids and all of the Children’s Campus
staff (180+ this year).I
believe that this new tradition has become the highlight of Christmas day for
everyone in our family. And this year we welcome Spencer’s girlfriend, Jane, to
join us in the kitchen, so again, even that new tradition has changed (and
gotten better!).

Sometimes it is very easy for us to get caught up in having
“the perfect Christmas” or holiday for our family. Sticking rigidly to
traditions can not only cause unnecessary stress, but also prevent you from new
blessings, new freedom and a joy that cannot be explained, but only
experienced.

While you prepare for your family Christmas celebration, or
Hanukah, or whatever ever other festivity that you may be getting ready for,
please consider being flexible this year, consider changing it up a bit and
don’t forget that it’s the people who are in your “traditional plans” that
really matter, not the decorations, or ingredients.

Live from Cape Town, South Africa … maybe enjoying a new
tradition?

Janine

PS – In baby news – this past week baby Surprise was
reunited with her mother after being with us for several months.Shortly thereafter, a 6-month-old baby
boy (Gideon) and yesterday an 8-week-old baby girl (Margaret) joined our family,
brining us to 144 children.Please
pray for both of these babies as they arrived severely malnourished.Margaret’s mother bled to death during
childbirth and she has only been fed thin maize porridge, by her Grandmother,
since birth. She currently weighs 2.6 KG (5.7 pounds).

Saturday, December 10, 2016

This week I experienced something that was so pure and so
special, I almost found myself wanting to keep it to myself, tucked deeply in
to my heart. But that would be selfish, and so today I share it with you.

We have all heard about the attitude of gratitude, but do
you really know what it looks like? I do.

On Thursday we had the annual Christmas party for our staff
at the Children’s Campuses. That’s not as easy as you might think.How do you have a party for the 65
people who care for 143 children (including night shift, cooks, cleaners and
drivers) all at the same time? Who looks after the children??

This year we planned the party during the time that 98 of
them are supposed to be napping (the toddlers and big kids).We asked long-term volunteers Kenny and
Amber VanWinkle and the Harp family to come and sit in the houses where the
children slept. Then we recruited our front office women and a few from
Khutsala to come and look after the babies while we celebrated Christmas at the
back of the baby home (so we were available for emergencies).

The event was well planned by our Supervisors and all I had
to do was show up (with bags of prizes for our quiz game of course).Homemade/decorated Christmas cookies
were handed out and Amber’s peppermint/white chocolate bark was a hit.At the end of the party I told each of
them that they would be getting a food gift basket from us including 2L fresh
milk, 30 eggs, maize flour, oil, sugar beans, sugar, cabbage, a pair of flip
flops and of course, a live chicken. With each item that I pulled out they cheered with glee, as they are all
favorites, and very important to their families.

And then I made and announcement that brought the house
down, and absolutely shocked me.I
thought I had seen it all here, but just when I think I have seen it all, I
find that I haven’t.

I told them that everyone working on Christmas day would
earn double pay for that day.

Watch these two short videos, and then read on.

Don't miss Helen and the live chicken!

Double pay means an additional $2.60 to $7.00 - for the whole
day.And they were so very grateful,
not only for the money, but that we acknowledged their hard work and
commitment. It was a moment of
true, pure joy, and I am so thankful that I got to experience it.

Do you have an attitude of gratitude?I can tell you that after my experience
with my wonderful Swazi family, I am looking deeply in to my own heart and
doing a bit of clean up in the “thankful attitude” area.The bible says that we are to give
thanks in all things.That has
been my goal this year, and I will continue to work on it in 2017.

Live from Swaziland … six more sleeps until we see Spencer
and 13 until we see Chloe!!

Janine

PS - It’s been a year since Ian has seen our kids and 11 months
since I have.Serving the Lord comes
with sacrifices that some days are hard to bear.I am so thankful that they will be home soon!

Saturday, December 3, 2016

My mom was a lot of things including (but not limited to);
brilliant Pharmacist, passionate researcher, loving mother and wife, devoted
Christian, exquisite dessert chef and collector of all things. She simply did
not have the ability to throw anything out.I mean nothing.

Two extremes that I can now share publicly (now that she has
passed away) would be finding a drawer full of used wax – the kind that
was poured on the top of freshly made jelly to seal it (and then thrown out
when the jelly was opened, but not mom’s).And then there was the zip lock bag in the freezer
that contained yarn that she planned to use to knit a sweater.The problem that I had with that was
that the yarn was made from a collection of fur that she had painstakingly
collected over the years … from my childhood CAT, Smokey.

Not kidding.

I had countless conversations with my parents about cleaning
out their basement full of three generations of pharmacy
bottles/jars/chemicals/pills/stained glass windows/clocks/piano(s)/ and other
stuff from generations of relatives who had died before them.My words fell on deaf ears (literally
and figuratively), mostly because my mom was convinced that she would be
“raptured” and so all of her “stuff” would be left to “non-believers” who would
be “left behind”.

Oh mom.

My dad passed away in 2005.A few years later my mom was moved to a nursing home,and I was left to deal with the
“stuff”.I was angry that they had
left the mess for me.I felt that
I was trespassing by going in to their home and throwing out dumpster(s) full
of garbage, giving away their things and keeping the odd item for myself.But with a lot of help from friends and
family, I made it through.

After the big clean out in 2010 we shipped a 20ft container
of things from mom and dad’s house to Project Canaan.As we unpacked it and distributed mom’s treasures all over
the farm I found myself repenting for my anger (over and over again).The Lord knew exactly what those things
were going to be used for and He kept them safely in my parent’s home.

Last weekend the Christmas tree was put up at the Oasis and
our children hung their ornaments on that tree. That was my parents’ Christmas tree.

When a child has a birthday and we have visitors join us for
cake, the plates that the cake is served on are my mom’s plates.

The stained glass window that hangs in the pharmacy at the
El Rofi medical clinic was in the front window of my Great Grandfather’s
pharmacy at the turn of the century in Uxbridge, Ontario (also found stored in
my parent’s basement).

Stained glass window from my Great Grandpa's pharmacy circa 1,800's.

I am not saying this in any way to be boastful, but rather
to share my thoughts on how God works, and to show that I believe that
everything that we have, comes from Him. It’s all HIS STUFF, and He will use it
as He wishes!

Yesterday another container arrived from Canada and while it
was mostly filled with diapers, wipes and toys, it also had the last of my
mothers treasures. Among them was a beautiful piece of hand carved marble that
my parents bought in India, many years ago.It is inlaid with semi-precious stones, each carved by hand
by the very same artisan families who hand-carved the Taj Mahal.

My parents had it shipped back from India in the 70’s and
then had a table base made for it.It was one of the few pieces of her own furniture that was in her
nursing home room.It truly was a
treasure (and not to be out of her sight!).Now it is here in Swaziland, Africa, and I am so thankful
for it.

Another one of her prize possessions also made the
trip.Mom’s baby grand piano arrived
in the container and will be used for piano lessons for our children (just as
it was for me), Christmas concerts and lots of other special occasions.

Mom's piano - being moved by our JCB (she may roll over in her grave for this one).

As Christmas approaches and I prepare for Spencer and Chloe
to come home, I am reminded every where I look at the influence my own parents
had on my life, both in life and in their death.Their work ethic, their faith, their commitment to family
and their commitment to their community has forever impacted my life, the lives
of our children and now, the tiny Kingdom of Swaziland.

Christmas is a time when family gathers together, and even with
all of my parents “stuff” that now surrounds me, none of it replaces having
them here in person.